


Time

by bettysjughead



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Cancer, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-21 23:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettysjughead/pseuds/bettysjughead
Summary: “She only has so much time left to live, so make every minute you spend with her the best she could ask for.”After Betty Cooper finds out she has cancer, she begins to grow closer with her childhood best friend (and crush) Jughead Jones. The two of them begin to fall in love, even though they are living on borrowed time.Can love conquer an illness?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to one of my best friends, Bella ‘Bells’ Muntean, who was unfortunately taken from us too soon due to cancer. I love you Bells. 
> 
> On another note, they are 16 in this.

“Ahhh!” Screams can be heard in every nook and cranny in the Cooper house. It isn’t fueled by a nightmare or a scary film, but by something unknown to the entire family. 

Tears fall down the youngest Cooper, Elizabeth’s pale face. She seems to just be screaming for no reason. Her sister was the first to enter her room, a look of concern in her eyes.

“Betty? What’s wrong?” She asks quietly, sitting down on the end of her sister’s bed, running a manicured hand down one of Betty’s legs, causing her to scream out in agony.

“My leg, it hurts, it hurts!” At that moment, Alice Cooper, their mother, enters Betty’s room, confused. 

“Elizabeth, what’s going on?” She questions, hands on her hips. 

“My leg, it hurts so bad!”

She flips on the light, and notes that there appears to be nothing visibly wrong with her leg. And that worries her. Elizabeth wasn’t one to fake an injury or sickness, and that is what drove Alice over the edge.

She picked Betty up and hurriedly told Polly to grab Betty’s things and got into the car with her screaming daughter. She carefully lay Betty on the backseat with a blanket. Polly rushed out and sat in the passenger seat. Alice quickly backed out of the drive-way and quickly drove to the hospital. Betty quickly texted her friends in their group chat that she was at the ER and they should pray. 

It seemed to take hours as Betty got multiple CAT scans and tests done. Alice worriedly paced the waiting room, waiting for any news about her daughter. At that moment, FP Jones and his son, Jughead entered the ER and immediately went over to Alice. FP embraced Alice tightly as Jughead awkwardly took a seat next to Polly, who had earbuds in.

He gently tapped her shoulder and she took out her earbuds, giving him a confused look.

“Polly, what’s going on with Betty?” He questioned, noting the tear stains on the older girl’s cheeks. 

Before Polly could answer, a doctor came out and spoke to Alice, causing her to break out in tears, nodding her head to what he was telling her. FP made his way over to his son, explaining that Betty would have to stay overnight in the hospital for her test results to come in because there was something wrong with her lungs. He also explained that Betty was allowed visitors at the moment and he about sprinted to her room. He pulled a chair up to her bed-side, giving her a small smile. 

“Hello, Betts.” He said quietly grabbing her hand, careful not to hit the IV in her wrist.

“Hi.” She said in a shaky voice, tears falling steadily down her cheeks, she was in obvious pain. He wiped the tears out of habit, trying not to cry too.

“What hurts?” He didn’t want to push, but let’s face it, he’s a curious teenager. 

“My leg and lungs.”

“Awe, Betts.” He pressed a shaky kiss to her forehead, stroking her fingers with his.

They stayed like that for hours until their other friends came in to visit Betty. She had taken some pain meds by the time Veronica, Archie and Kevin had come to visit her. She weakly smiled as they repeated the normal ‘What’s wrong’ and ‘Feel better soon’ charade. Even her cousin, Cheryl and her girlfriend, Toni, had come to visit Betty. 

A few hours, Betty and Jughead were quietly sleeping, Jughead still sitting in his chair with his head by Betty’s, their hands holding. FP, Polly and Alice were sleeping too, but on the other side of the room. A rather loud knock woke all of them as Betty’s doctor, Dr. Masters entered the room.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news. Betty has cancer. She has a form of bone cancer called Osteosarcoma.” The world seemed to stop at that second. Alice broke into tears, rushing over and embracing her daughter. 

That early morning, lots of tears were spilled as they learned that a large tumor had taken over Betty’s leg and too much pressure could cause it to rupture and the cancer would flow into her bloodstream and kill her. She was super nauseated. She would have to start chemo the next day to prevent the cell from getting too large. It was a rough day for the Cooper family.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Betty’s chemotherapy began. The entire time, Jughead stayed by her side. He allowed her to squeeze his hand as hard as she needed if the pain got too much to handle. Every few minutes, her face would contort into a pit of pure agony as she barely kept herself from screaming out loud, and she would grasp Jughead’s hand so hard it felt like it would fall off. But, he would tolerate anything for his Betts. 

During those long, tough hours of chemo, he finally realized that he was in love with Betty. Even in complete agony, she appeared to be flawless. He knew that if he was ever to make a move on her, it would have to be soon. Anytime, she could leave him and he wouldn’t be able to tell her how much he truly cared. And that made his heart hurt.

She was super nauseous while doing chemo. It made her sleepy but she felt like she had to get up and go to the bathroom every five minutes. It took her a while, but she regulated it to 2 or so hours of sleeping than using the bathroom. Jughead helped her the entire time, as Alice and FP were at their jobs and Polly at school. FP had called Riverdale High and explained that Jughead had to be there for Betty, and they allowed him to miss class. 

They unknowingly cuddled and watched random movies on Netflix during the chemo, but was hard to focus on because of Betty’s agony and wasn’t all that interesting, especially if your friend is in pain while you are enjoying a movie, it doesn’t seem right. Soon, Betty was asleep, curled up against Jughead’s body, finally looking peaceful. He just ran his fingers through her blonde locks, noticing that clumps fell out, knowing the chemo was taking it’s toll on Betty. 

When she finally woke after the chemo was finished, she felt completely sick. She couldn’t keep any food down at all. She had tried, but she just threw it up, Jughead holding her hair back and rubbing soothing circles on her back. She knew she was hungry, but nothing would stay down, which made her very frustrated. She just wished she didn’t have cancer and that she could eat. But, she wasn’t craving anything and her stomach couldn’t keep it down, so she got nutrients by a tube. 

A few days later, her cravings started to come back, which made her really happy. She felt ‘normal’ again. She was so happy that she made Jughead get her crackers. He only got her six. She also wasn’t allowed to have any dairy, and that made her frustrated because all she wanted a vanilla milkshake. She ate all six crackers before she said she couldn’t eat any more. She suprisingly kept them down, but regretted eating them because she felt sick afterwards. Later, she begged him to get her some fries from Pop’s, and begrudgingly complied. He got them and before she ate, she prayed that she could keep them down and not feel sick afterwards. 

She finished the fries within an hour and kept them down without feeling sick. She was so happy. She got even happier when Doctor Masters came in to let her know that since she could keep solids down and was done with her first chemo session, she could go home. She was so so happy that she began to cry. Once she got home, though, she was so nauseous and tired she fell asleep as she hit her pillow. 

The next morning she went to jump out of bed, out of habit, then realized she couldn’t walk anymore and she was upset about that. Doctor Masters called Alice and informed her that Betty could have dairy again. She was happy, and she texted her group chat and let them know. Veronica came over within the hour with a milkshake for her. As soon as she took a sip, she wanted to spit it out. It tasted absolutely terrible. She had to Google why, and she found out that Chemo causes your taste buds to completely change. And like that, she was sad again. 

Within the next few days, she got so hungry and ate a lot. She also threw up so much, and was praying that she didn’t have to go back to the ER, she just wanted to stay at home in her own bed, and hanging out with her friends. She ended up having to go back after being able to have dairy and fried foods again, and wasn’t allowed to have any visitors in her room. She was upset because during the hard and painful rounds of chemo, Jughead was there to comfort her and it was going to be really hard to do it without him physically there. However, during the chemo she was allowed to use her phone, so she texted him the entire time and towards the end of the session, FaceTimed him.

She was allowed visitors after 2 weeks, and when Jughead heard this, he brought her Pop’s. She could eat it and he got her her favorite; a cheeseburger and fries. She no longer liked vanilla milkshakes so he got her a flavored water. She was genuinely surprised that he brought her Pop’s and hugged him very tightly. However, she noticed that a few days later, she felt very sick, different than her normal sick feeling. The doctors found out that the medicine wasn’t working, and she wasn’t allowed visitors again. They tried a different medicine and she went home a few days later. Her friends brought her gifts and cards and things to decorate her hospital room. They promised to help her hang the decorations and things when she went back.

She went back a week later, with a high fever and an uneasy stomach. The doctors ran some tests and found that her immunity was at 60, the average human’s was in the thousands. It was expected from her chemo, but she had to take antibiotics to help raise her levels, meaning a few days in the hospital. Unfortunately, her immunity still dropped, and they had to give her something stronger, with at least another week in the hospital. She stayed for a while, and she noticed her hair was coming out. She found out when she woke up one morning. She screamed at the blonde locks on her pillow and cried. She was going to have to shave her head. She didn’t want to lose her hair. She found out she was going to shave it sometime that week.

A few days before she was to get her head shaved, she allowed to go home. Her immunity counts increased crazily, according to her doctors. She was told they tripled over night, and she was happy with her body's progress, even though she was going to lose her hair. She had Jughead have a photoshoot with her before she lost all of her hair. She sadly smiled as he showed them to her five minutes before she was to shave her head. She told him to leave because she didn’t want him to see her without hair, but he told her that he didn’t care that she would be bald.

“Betty, it’s not a big deal. You’ll be bald, so what? You’ll still be beautiful.” 

Her jaw dropped, “You think I’m beautiful.” She said.

“Yes, you, Elizabeth Cooper are the most gorgeous girl that I have and ever will lay eyes on.” 

The pair shared a kiss just before the nurse came in with the razor. She cried as the nurse shaved it all off. She never thought she would lose her hair. She looked in the mirror afterwards. She hated it. She wanted her blonde locks back, she just looked so bare without her hair.

Jughead kissed her head while mumbling, “Bald is beautiful.”

And, she finally realized that she was head over heels in love with Jughead Jones.


End file.
